The new nursery will be based at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital in Gateshead, providing 108 childcare places. There will be a number of places allocated to staff working at the hospital.
The £1.5 million setting, which will be known as Kids 1st QE, is the group’s second in Gateshead, joining Low Fell, and its third nursery on a hospital site.
With the new nursery, Kids 1st will operate a total of 11 nurseries, offering 1,178 places.
According to Nursery World’s latest Nursery Chains, published in autumn 2014, the acquisition sees the group move up two places from 17th to 15th of the largest 25 nursery chains in the UK. The nursery group also has the highest proportion of outstanding nurseries in the country.
Peter Harding, deputy chief executive at QE Gateshead, said, ‘We are delighted to be welcoming Kids 1st onto our site.
‘The group has an excellent reputation for providing first class childcare and crucially they have vast experience of running successful hospital nurseries. The opportunity for our staff to use salary sacrifice also makes it exceptional value. I know that that this will be great news for our staff.’
Another of the group's hospital nurseries, Kids 1st Wanbeck, next to Wansbeck General Hospital in Northumberland, was this month rated outstanding by Ofsted. It is Kids 1st second outstanding grade this year.
